THE fiancee of a man who was murdered the day before her birthday says her life has fallen apart in the year since his death.

Paula Haddlesey, 44, has lost her home, her business and watched her daughter drop out of college in the 12 months after Reynald Duchene was killed in Southend.

The talented chef, 37, had been enjoying a concert by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in Priory Park to celebrate Miss Haddlesey’s birthday when he was fatally stabbed by Karl Wills on June 26 last year.

Despite watching her fiancee’s killer being jailed for at least 23 years in December that year, Miss Haddlesey said she was still haunted by the events of last summer.

She said: “I’ve never got over it. It’s been a real struggle. It seems like it happened 10 years ago, but the pain is still so raw.”

In the wake of Mr Duchene’s death, Miss Haddlesey said she could not face returning to work at her pottery business, Pop In and Paint, in Rawreth.

As the business began to lose money, she was also forced to move out of the home in Arlington Square, South Woodham Ferrers, which she had shared with her fiancee because her former husband wanted it back.

To heap further misery on her troubled year, she watched her daughter, Stacey, 19, struggle to finish her three-year course at South Essex College in Southend.

Stacey eventually decided she could not go back to the town where Mr Duchene died, losing a place at the University of Toronto in Canada.

Miss Haddlesey, who has now moved to a new home in South Woodham Ferrers, said: “Rey was very close to Stacey and my other children, James and Lloyd.

“They were really hurt by his death too. We’ve had some fantastic support from our friends and I don’t think I would have got through it without them.”

Wills, of Cranley Road, Westcliff, claimed he pulled a lock knife from his pocket to warn off Mr Duchene after they became embroiled in an argument over picnic chairs.

But it was later revealed the 22-year-old had two previous convictions for carrying knives in February 2007 and January 2009.

Under new laws announced by the Government last week, anyone convicted of carrying a knife will now spend six months behind bars.

Miss Haddlesey said: “Maybe if that had been in place before, he wouldn’t have been carrying a knife that night. Maybe Rey would still be here.”